Bashkortostan or Bashkiria: discussion of republican tourism brand continues

UFA, 14 December 2017. /Bashinform News Agency, Olga Murtazina/. In Ufa, a regular discussion of the tourism brand of the republic took place with participation of officials, representatives of tourist industry, bloggers and journalists. The meeting was held by the employees of the Ufa advertising studio Paradox box, which received an order for the brand development.

The overwhelming majority of speakers spoke in favor of "Bashkiria", including the ethnologist and culture expert of the Academy of Sciences RB Yuldash Yusupov. He suggested using more actively such objects as Shulgan-Tash ("the cave directly relates to the origin of culture"), Ufa-II hillfort, Sarmatian gold.

The blogger Rais Gabitov and employee of the Abzakovo ski rezort Vladislav Novikov drew attention to the fact that Bashkiria lost the "South Ural" brand, which was now firmly associated with the Chelyabinsk region. At the same time, the "Ural" brand is "appropriated" by Yekaterinburg and the Sverdlovsk region. It is necessary to decide whether the republic should compete for its return, how to do it, or position itself differently.

80% of Bashkiria souvenirs are edible (honey, chak-chak, kazalyk). And most participants consider it as a positive fact. The employee of the Ufa hotel "Sheraton", native of Samara, said that honey had always been and remained the best gift from Bashkiria.

Many representatives of the industry noted that there were not enough excursions over Ufa, and ethnographic elements in the republic as a whole. "Tourists would be happy to look at recreated settlements, crafts, classes, costumes of the Bashkirs", they marked.

The famous Bashkir hospitality can also become a brand, said Ildar Nurtdinov, director of development of the "Bashkiria" lifestyle center.

The discussion also touched upon shortcomings of the republican tourist infrastructure.

As the employee of the Paradox studio Ilshat Baiburin said, the website of the project with polls and analytics would soon be launched.

The Paradox studio received an order from the State Committee for Tourism RB to develop the tourism brand of the republic based on the results of the tender conducted in October 2017. The cost of the contract is 2.7 million rubles.